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Sunday, 18 August 2013

GLOBAL: Academics in South Korea top business funding index

Karen MacGregor13 August 2013Issue No:283

Academics in South Korea attract the largest amounts of funding per
capita in the world from big business, according to a new index – on
average US$97,900 per researcher. Next come academics in Singapore, The
Netherlands, South Africa and Belgium.

Ireland (US$8,300 per academic) and Portugal (US$8,600) are at the
bottom of the list of 30 countries surveyed for the World Academic
Summit Innovation Index, which calculates what big companies invest
annually in academics to conduct research and innovation work on their
behalf.

The index, compiled by Times Higher Education ahead of its inaugural World Academic Summit to be held in October, was produced from Thomson Reuters data used by the THE
World University Rankings. It examines one of the 13 indicators in
isolation: ‘Industry Income – Innovation: Research income from
industry/academic staff’.

The average value per researcher was calculated, and institutions that
did not report research income from industry were removed from the
calculation. The index converted all cash values into US dollars for
comparative purposes, and used purchasing power parity to take into
account the cost of living in each country in the study.

The idea, according to a press release, is to provide “an interesting
global snapshot of how successfully the world’s top universities compete
for research funding from industry”.

It found that global companies invest on average US$97,900 in each
Korean academic. In Singapore, academics receive on average US$84,500
per academic, with The Netherlands in third (US$72,800), South Africa in
fourth (US$64,400) and Belgium fifth (US$63,700).

In the Top 20 they are followed by Taiwan, China, Sweden, Denmark and
India in 10th place, Russia, Turkey, Canada, the US, Australia, Japan,
Finland, New Zealand and France, with Hong Kong (US$20,000) coming in at
number 20.

One surprise, the press statement said, is that major companies invest
just US$13,300 in British academics, “putting the UK fourth from the
bottom”.

“The other surprise result is that, like the UK and Ireland, traditional
educational powerhouse the US lies in the middle of the table, in 14th
position, with industry contributing nearly four times less to its
academic researchers (US$25,800 per person) than in the case of Korea.

“This apparent lack of appetite for Western investment by big business
is in contrast to the fact that some of the world’s most significant
developments historically come from British and American institutions.”

In recent years, the statement continued, “the world’s increasing
enthusiasm for technological advancement and computer science has seen
big business shift its attention eastward to Asia; a region known for
its strong manufacturing sector and traditional academic focus on these
subject areas”.

It cited examples of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology’s
collaboration with Samsung to develop the world’s first humanoid robot,
and scientists at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore recently
displaying the latest ‘invisibility cloak’ by making a cat and a
goldfish vanish.

“Whilst the West dominates in terms of quantity, with 15 European
countries present alongside the US and Canada, Asia sees five of its
nine featured countries in the top 10: Korea in first, Singapore in
second, Taiwan in sixth, China in seventh and India in 10th.”

The release said the findings were good news for some countries whose universities did not appear in the THE World University Rankings.

“At number 10, India is ranked fifth most commercially valuable country
in Asia, with big business pouring in an average $36,900 per researcher.
Yet the three Indian institutions featured in THE’s annual World University Rankings all fall below 226th position.”

Russia, at number 11 in the index, had only two institutions in the THE rankings and both were outside the Top 200. Russian academics are paid US$36,400 by big business.

The Times Higher EducationWorld Academic Summit will be held from 2-4 October at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

A spokesperson for the summit said: “Working with business and industry
to move their discoveries and ideas from the ivory towers into the real
world – and to make a real social and economic impact – has become one
of the most important functions of a modern university.

“For some, an ability to attract funding from big business could even be a case of sink or swim in this age of austerity.”